Citizens
from across Maryland participating in Humane Lobby Day 2012 met with lawmakers
in Annapolis to urge them to support animal protection legislation.
Specifically, participants focused on bills to provide consumers with more
information about the sources of puppies sold in pet stores, to require
convicted animal abusers to pay the costs of caring for their animals during
the time of their trials, and to stop the cruel trade in shark fins. The Humane
Society of the United States, ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals®), and Maryland Votes for Animals are sponsoring Humane
Lobby Day.

“Last year
was an unprecedented year in the Maryland General Assembly, with six
significant bills passed to protect animals,” said Tami Santelli, Maryland
senior state director for The HSUS. “We are thrilled to be here with so many
animal advocates from across the state and some of the true champions for
animals in the General Assembly. We look forward to continuing the momentum
from last year with even stronger laws for animals in Maryland.”

“It’s hard
to resist those cute puppies playing in the pet store windows, but most people
have no idea where they come from,” said Ann Church, ASPCA vice president of
state affairs. “H.B. 131/S.B. 317 will educate consumers so they do not
unknowingly purchase a dog from a puppy mill and perpetuate animal suffering.
Maryland residents care about the humane treatment of animals, and support
legislation that would help fight the inherently cruel puppy mill industry.”

Humane Lobby
Day attendees urged their legislators to support the following legislation:

H.B.
131/S.B. 317, sponsored by Del. Nic Kipke, R-District 31, and Sen.
Catherine Pugh, D-District 40, would crack down on puppy mills by requiring
retail pet stores to disclose information about the puppies they sell and
provide consumers with remedies if they unknowingly buy a sick puppy from
a pet store.

H.B.
393/S.B. 465, sponsored by Del. Eric Luedtke, D-District 14, and Sen.
Brian Frosh, D-District 16, would ban the sale, trade or possession of
shark fins in Maryland. Unsustainable fishing methods like shark finning,
which involves slicing off the fin of a shark and discarding the animal at
sea to drown or bleed to death, have led to declines by as much as 90
percent in some shark populations in recent decades.

The HSUS
also presented its Maryland Humane State Legislator awards at Thursday’s Humane
Lobby Day event. Each year The HSUS recognizes state legislators across the
country who have initiated path-breaking animal protection legislation and
demonstrably advanced reform in the policy-making arena. Del. Jeff
Waldstreicher, D-District 18, and Sen. Jim Robey, D-District 13, will be
recognized for sponsoring a bill that passed in the 2011 session that allows
courts to prohibit someone convicted of animal cruelty from owning animals as a
term of probation.

Del. Tom
Hucker, D-District 20, and Sen. Lisa Gladden, D-District 41, will also be
recognized for introducing legislation that finally closed a loophole that
previously allowed commercial dog breeders to operate without a license. This
legislation, which passed last year, requires commercial dog breeders to be
licensed by the county in which they operate, and requires counties to report
basic information about these commercial breeders once a year to the Maryland
Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Maryland
ranks 15th in The HSUS’ 2011 state animal protection rankings,
which grades each state based on a wide range of animal protection laws
dealing with pets, animal cruelty and fighting, wildlife, animals in research,
horses and farm animals. The state gained points for its strong laws governing
the private ownership of dangerous exotic animals as pets and protection for
companion animals.